Random Chaos

I'm...a very mixed case when it comes to reading.

I can read fast (though I have a terrible tendency to skim and miss out an important detail) but I have a terrible attention span. So if a book doesn't hold my interest it will take forever to get finished because I simply will not want to read it.

I loved reading...until school started interfering and telling me WHAT I should read and HOW I should read it. In year 1 (which is our equivalent of the first grade with 5-6 year olds) I went from being one of the bottom of the class when it came to reading (I was one of the youngest in the class due to being born only two months before the cut-off date for that class) to one of the top in the class of two weeks. How did this happen? I liked the look of the illustrations on the front covers of the books the top of the class members were reading (it had pictures of kids eating gingerbread men. I was less than 5 and a half and I thought primarily with my stomach. You do the math) so I upped my game to get them. But then a few years later the school starts saying that I should be reading Charles Dickens instead of Roald Dahl at that age. Now I think Charles Dickens is a great writer - when I read him of my own accord I loved his work - but as a 9 year old who likes fantastical and nightmarish concepts, classical literature from almost 200 years ago sounds as dull as ditchwater. I refused to play along and continued to read what I liked, which the school deemed far below my academic level and soon reading became tainted: it was no longer a fun pastime, it was all ACADEMIC. Apparently if you weren't reading a fancy book you were an idiot. Why? What was wrong with reading books you liked? I liked reading easily accessible books because they were effortless to get into and I enjoyed them! If a book doesn't hold your interest you shouldn't be forced to read it because you won't appreciate it.

I think this is why I am not a very literary person because I do not have much of an interest in books that are presented to me as articulate or sophisticated because my mind still associates that with school and...well we know I have an axe to grind in that department. (Though I don't actually have any beef with literature itself - I willingly took up English Literature as an A-Level and effectively enjoyed it plus I began to give old classics a chance as an adult and found I quite liked some of them - I just don't like being told I SHOULD read something because it makes me seem cleverer if I do.)

To this day one of my biggest pet peeves is the reading guidelines imposed on books. I don't think they should be there - children should be allowed to choose if they want to read the books or not. Yes, some books are very sophisticated and if a young mind takes them up then good on them but for the deep affection of excrement, DON'T TRY MAKING SOMEONE FEEL LIKE RUBBISH FOR READING SOMETHING SIMPLER. Reading should be a joy, not a chore.

ETA: ACK. Sorry if I made it sound like I was screaming at you - I was just ranting at the academic system. *bows head*